Foolish, Youthful Financial Decisions You'll Regret Later

Some decisions you make in your youth seem bad at the time, while others don’t reveal the true depths of their awfulness until years later. Behaving in a recklessly impulsive manner with finances can come back to cost you, making it important to correct your misbehavior before problems overwhelm you.

* Avoiding medical care. Disregarding dental care, in particular, can haunt you for years after you make your return to the dentist’s chair. Also, ignoring illnesses until they become so acute that you need hospitalization can cost you in the short term.

* Underestimating long-term costs of expensive stuff. Access to large amounts of credit can put dollar signs in your eyes and spur you to make ill-advised purchases. If you don’t have the money in your checking account and don’t really need whatever it is you want to buy, you’re best off saving up for it rather than buying now and choking on the interest.

* Expecting things to last longer than they will. Clothes, gadgets and appliances fall in this category. High upfront expenses seem justifiable because you think you’ll have a thing forever. Get an idea of how long a purchase will last — as well as how long it will be until you’ll want to replace it — before spending big.